Challenges and Struggles

A Challenge or a struggle. Which do you prefer? Which do you think you're doing more of?

Despite the textbook similarities in the meanings of both words, there is difference between a struggle and a challenge. The former is what most people would be doing, just surviving, just fighting back, being passive and waiting for the fight to come to them, fighting tooth and nail to live on, to crawl through the circumstances simply just to say 'I want to survive.'

Nothing wrong with that, especially when the going gets really tough. But what I'm more interested in now is taking the fight to the enemy.

It seems a little confusing for others, as noted in the reactions of a few people whom I've discussed with about this. Some insist both are the same. Others are just plain clueless. Justifiable, of course. After all, we do refer to dictionaries and language rules about definitions.

My definition, though, determines that a challenge means the direct opposite of a struggle. It is Active. Taking the fight to The Enemy, or your circumstances, instead of waiting for it to come to you. In layman's terms, you deal with it before it deals with you. A simple concept, but often more difficult to carry out than it looks.

Being Active also means that you have to be Aggressive in a challenge. Ever seen challengers for the greatest accolades and honours, especially in sports? Do they wait for the defending champion to come at them? Does the archetype challenger run around in a boxing ring like a monkey and wait for the champion to come at him after losing patience? (Perhaps, in some cases. But note that these types usually have a counterattack strategy, which is also Aggressive in a different way.)

That's what I believe it means to take the fight to your opponent. Throw the first punch. Fire the first shot. Draw first blood. 先下手为强。Common sense, really.

Yet, many of us continue to live in passivity. Some go about their daily routines without a sense of purpose. Others set a simple goal and leave it at that. Then there are some who dream about castles in the sky in the sweet by-and-by....and I'm not exempt from that either.

And when you find the need to be Aggressive towards the things challenging you - especially your identity, beliefs and values - there will always be the need to be Armed. 


Not the Magnums or the Andurils or the Big Berthas, mind you. What I'm talking about are things that can form the core of your beliefs. Your role models. The idols you look up to (not chase after or worship, mind you), the positively beneficial lessons you have learned in life, the concepts that frame your world and make it worth living.

For me, it's The Word. It's the belief in Him that beefs me up, the faith. Then there is prayer, and more believing as well as the various good concepts that help to mould me into a better person.

Take note, that these things should be mostly positive. Considering that most of what The Enemy does against me is negative, and that common sense tells us all that whatever an opponent, a competitor does to us has a negative impact, we should use it's greatest bane: Positivism.

Strange, isn't it? But sometimes the things you have to fight against aren't people, for they are only the agents of the real threat. Those detractors, those backstabbers, those who spurned you despite your very best intentions, those who distance themselves away from you because of misconceptions....They are only the mediums for negative thoughts.

What you should be watching out for is actually....

...Yourself.

No, really. For it is you who determines your own world. For it is I who determine my own world. our words frame our world. What we think about and tell ourselves make or break us. And it is to this enemy that you have the be Active, be Aggressive to and be Armed for.

So....What are you waiting for?

What am I waiting for?